A question for people who're experienced with communes

Recently I've been thinking about buying a large house and sharing it with four or five other people; So I was just wondering if anyone else had ever been in an arrangement like that, and if so, what was it like?

 

I've rented many many houses and shared them. I've owned two and shared them.

What I've seen is that if one person is the owner (landlord) then the others are the tenants - and that can limit how much the group pulls together. The best thing I've seen is where everybody owns the place - then it is 'ours'. Second best is that "we" are all tenants - so its OK if we unite 'against' the landlord, cause the landlord is 'them' not 'us'.

If you are thinking of this as an experiment or a short term thing you can learn a lot. I would advise you to, as much as possible, try to find some common ideology or belief system ("we are an eco-household" etc) to use in choosing people to live with so that people have something in common that is more elevating than "cheap rent is great"

 

Good info above! I've shared houses and lived and worked in communes. The intent was different. In the house it was cheap rent, a base for deadheads and college students and community activist types. The commune and the house were totally different experiences.
On the farm it's long term planning, resource management, and growing community/ economic relationships.
For example our commune is working with having a young person who is a ward of the state come stay with us when they turn 18 as they will be of age and unable to stay in a juvenile group home. We've had homeless alcoholics referred to us by the county social agency. We are trying to get eggs and produce contracts with different missions, food-banks and the jail. This is stuff that takes long term planning that would not happen at the houses. Good luck.

 

it works great...ever hear of the show called "the real world" ? ..on MTV lol

 

There was a video on here a few months back. A house down south somewhere. It worked well there.

But it's hard to get a large group of people to work together well. Find one or 2 others who you could really do this with. More if you can find them. Write something up-if they work on the house for 12 months (or whatever) then they own a share of the house. Rent out the other rooms for money.

 

I have some experience with several communes and can only emphasize that this is very difficult if we're talking about people you don't know... Maybe 15% of the folks that come will stay and be productive...most will talk about doing alot to help and then ultimately do nothing. The smartest thing you can do UPFRONT is write out a statement of cooperation that spells out EXACTLY what you will provide and EXACTLY what newcomers are expected to DO. And DO is an action word. A vision statement is fine but doesn't specify what is expected of your "guests" on a daily basis. This can be highly regimented with hours and credits and sign up sheets or low key. Low key works IF everybody is committed to doing what needs to be done. Visit Earthaven (NC) or Twin Oaks (VA) to see how a larger commune must monitor the workload. Expecting people will just do what needs to be done is just not gonna work. Things like doing the dishes, housecleaning, garden work, tilling, firewood, cooking, animal care...all need to be divvied up...a constant chore of just assigning the chores. Yeah it can be a bummer when Reality sets in!! But go for it...just be realistic. Getting away from the Mainstream is worth the effort...especially NOW.

 

What you really need to watch for when doing things like this, is that you will be constantly offered advice that goes against the very nature of what most people mean when they think about living communally with others.

Being set up to handle those who aren't dedicated, by having strict rules, by-laws, guidelines or whatever else they want to call them, is how you take conventional society and dress it up like communal living...

While I totally understand why people would say things like this (better then most in fact), I am of the firm belief that if you are just translplanting the same ideas from conventional society that made it what it is, then you are wasting your time.

Looking at some of the larger 'communes' is a great idea... see if they are what you think of about communal living.

For me anyway, if you have to have contracts and letters of intent and such to protect yourself, then you might as well stay in babylon.

Phloyd... if you go buy a house with others, it means you will be only looking for people who are good little capitalists and nobody else.

If you buy it by yourself based on others actions (as in you can't afford it on your own without others) chances are, you will end up getting stuck with all the bills when they flake out (and chances are, a good portion of those who are 'with' you before you start, won't be once it actually happens).

I would advise you to find something that you can afford and make a go of (even if really slow) on your own, in case you are left in that position.

Of course, you can go the other way... find a whole bunch of follower types and get them to sign contracts to protect yourself....

 

Here's another approach to finding the 15% that you want to keep.

-Set the place up as a hostel (this avoids eviction laws for renters AND the taxes meant for hotels) where hostel guest pays by the day;
-Mention that everyone kicks in with keeping things clean, everyone washes their own dishes, etc;
-then simply watch to see what the hostel guest does;
-after two weeks (or less) make your decision if you want to keep the hostel guest or not.

yes, you'll have alot of turn over (you would any way), but this way you don't have to keep harping about the rules and be the enforcer all the time.

-those that have the habits you want will display them; those that don't have those habits AND have no intention of developing them will also show themselves clearly.

never remind a guest what "the rules" are, just let them be themselves.

...and don't tell the person, whose room is now rented out to a new guest, why you didn't invite them to stay longer..... that way you don't have to argue/document and you don't educate the local community populace on how to "fool your system".

this is a very simple, low key method of finding "keepers" that match what you want to have around you.

 

i have been living shortly in several communes and i can tell you my conclusion: my ideal commune is more an ecovillage where everybody has his own house and people share a commun house with a kitchen where they can have activities together if desired so.. i think the topic with communes is to dose the level of closeness .. as for everybody chores it will always been problematic maybe they can stay as options!too much obligations is too much!it is not so easy!